I’ve never been shy and anyone who has seen me on stage, listened to my podcast or watched me on live video knows I don’t shut up and I talk fast. So when it’s 2017 prediction time, I willing to contribute to anyone’s collaborative projects as long as they’ve supported me throughout the year and their message aligns with my passion and purpose.

2016 has been a crazy year for technology, social media, live video and the world in general, so rather than reinventing the wheel I wanted to share a snapshot of all of my guest predictions posts that I contributed to this year.

In 3-5 sentences, what are your predictions in 2017 surrounding social and content marketing?

2017 will be the year of Right-Time participatory content! Brands that stand out using video will be those that integrate it into their content calendar, create training & employee workshops and embrace the social aspects of video as it’s less about real-time content and more about the right-time. AR & VR will continue to grow but NO brand will be able to jump into those spaces without first having a social video strategy. In 2017, focus will shift from millennials to digital natives, those who embrace the power of technology and digital change, as this audience will dominate the consumer & influencer market. Brands will no longer care about the year customers were born rather how important digital is to them within the customer journey!

“Social video will be viewed as the required gateway drug for all brands that want to move into AR/VR in the next three years,” says Brian Fanzo, a social strategist with the username @isocialfanz on Snapchat. “Facebook Live and Periscope won’t be able to hold back creators’ and brands’ demands for more analytics and access to that data via third party tools, as new live apps emerge and the lack of live video standards continues.”

Keep an eye out in 2017 for better live video data analysis tools and the first experiments in live VR.

“In 2017 the value of data will increase as new live video and social media features will be released and updated on an almost weekly basis. Sadly brands and agencies can no longer trust that the platforms are providing accurate and personalized data at the right time. I believe 2017 will be the year 3rd party tools and apps are leveraged and integrated into marketing strategies to leverage the increased data while also eliminating the need to trust the networks and platforms.”

I believe live video use from brands will continue to grow as more brands are able to link actionable data like repeat viewership and demographics of unique viewers. I also believe no brand will be prepared for AR/VR without first having a live video strategy, therefore, brands will start thinking like a media company in 2017 to be prepared for AR/VR in 2020. Lastly, I believe employee takeovers & influencers creating video content on the brand social accounts will become the norm as brands switch to a culture & customer experience focused social media from the traditional sales and marketing of the past.

Most Important Social Network:

Facebook, the dedication to live video led by Zuckerberg has only just begun. In 2017 we’ll be able to promote live videos, target replays towards certain profiles and leverage Instagram live video as an amplification of Facebook live content. Facebook will become the home for all live video programming in 2017

My co-host Daniel dropped some of the most insightful predictions around S.M.A.C. on this episode so for that reason alone you must listen to this episode. Below are a couple of my highlights that will make more sense after listening to this episode.

Social Media budgets will be move out of the marketing department in 2017

Mobility will be transformed as customers purchase their next phone not for the features and functionality of the device but what the device can enable, connect too and what new experiences it will enable.

Trust of social networks and video platforms has been lost, that combined with marketing departments in brands better understand the power of data will force social networks and live video platforms to open up their API and work to integrate their data into 3rd party solutions.

Migration and integration of cloud solutions will be simplified in 2017, allowing for brands to worry less about the cloud solution and more about redesigning their apps and software today to take full advantage of cloud capabilities.